Crossfader

WG seems to not only hate French lights, but French cruisers also
also some tier X lights now have 390m view range... IS-7 has 400m

please tell me your secret

The nerf to DD's continue. Its never a big one, not even a direct one, its millimeter by millimeter, taken individually they seem fine.
Stealth fire, bah do we really need it, RPF, turns out not so bad, more and more radar cruisers, well thats just a smoke counter, BB's and DD's with radar, well thats just there "unique" thing, german BB's with great secondaries and hydro, "national flavor". IJN torp nerf, well there was to much spam, IJN reshuffle, well the guns are nerfed, the tier 8 is worse, new german DD's well, the are kinda shit.... on and on, just look at CV's. You realize that with 80% of game with 10 BB, 5 each side, WG truly does want world of battleships.
people using a tool available to them is not a crutch, being dependent on it is, but knowing when to use it to be the most effective is what differentiates good and bad players.

Alabama OP cause torp belt 50%..... PAY2WIN CONFIRMED

Alabama OP cause torp belt 50%..... PAY2WIN CONFIRMED

nope, none at all... i have 20 flags, i used Military contributor flag on my premiums and Alpha flag on normal ships. I got my first jolly roger this season, i only use it on my tier 5 premiums, just because they dont really make $ or exp.

+
=

at this point WG has stopped caring and is going full P2W.... they arent even subtle about it

Yes. Please let him come back so that his extremely out of the loop ass can pretend to tell us something about a game that has nothing left to be explained with an ego larger than the US's military budget.

Since I've now played a substantial cross-section of the T8s figured it was a good time to do a rundown of the various ships. Most of these I've played with existing mechanics, but where I've not I'll indicate that fact. Grading is entirely arbitrary and based entirely on my subjective opinion. I have given each ship a rating for each type of play: solo, division and organised (including Clan Wars, Ranked and Team Battles). These ranks are as follows from high to low:
1.      Exceptional: This ship is so strong it is amongst the best ships tier-for-tier in the game and is critically important in the game type listed
2.      Strong: This ship is powerful and frequently used by top players and clans in the game type listed.
3.      Competitive: This ship is competent in its role and is commonly used in the game type listed.
4.      Underperforms: This ship underperforms in the game type listed and is not commonly used. This might be due to the ship being bad or just having its role performed better elsewhere.
5.      Garbage: This ship is never used willingly in the game type listed and you will often be laughed at for bringing one.
Also note that I'm not a carrier player and won't be covering them in any form.
USA
 
North Carolina - Solo: Strong, Division: Exceptional, Organised: Strong to Exceptional (map specific)
 
Probably one of the best battleships tier for tier in the game. This monster has the best short range armament in the game (and it isn't too shabby outside the 10km optimal either). They're accurate (2.0 sigma) and have a fantastic terminal ballistic characteristic, rarely overpenetrating and frequently getting lol citadels (if you can handle the slow shell speed). It has tough armour, it's comfortably fast and the AA is brutal. Its only weaknesses are the somewhat poor handling characteristics and the torpedo belt. That hurts when someone shits torps at you, but provided you aren't dense enough to sit still in the open (you aren't are you?) it isn't a huge issue. It frequently sees play in comp as an anchor ship for a flank.
Benson - Organised: Exceptional
 
I've not actually played this ship since beta, and it's very much on my to-do list. However, all you need to do is look at the competitive meta to see how strong this boat is. Good torps, solid guns, enough health and speed. It's the perfect generalist and it has the best smoke in-tier. That makes it a fantastic support ship in a division, or a good soloist.
New Orleans - Solo: Competitive, Division: Strong, Organised: Underperforms
 
Used to be utter crap. Now it's one of the strongest, most consistent cruisers in tier. It's been progressively buffed since inception and had lots of tools added to its arsenal. In its current iteration it has solid DPM (yay 6.1 buff), good armour and based US AP shells (which have an 80 degree autobounce angle rather than a 70 degree autobounce angle). The HE isn't actually too bad either. You lack some of the versatility of the Atago with its torpedoes, but your guns are undoubtedly better. The addition of Radar makes the NO quite genuinely competitive in random games, where your ability to chase destroyers and Kutuzovs out of smoke is nothing short of game-winning. Paired with a short detection range you can sneak up on smoke clouds and end unwary dwellers very quickly with your fat Yankee shells. It sees less use in competitive because the Chapayev has stronger damage output and a longer range radar (generally you need less actual radar time in competitive and more range).
Russia/Soviet Union
 
Mikhail Kutuzov - Solo: Exceptional, Division: Exceptional, Organised: Exceptional (perfect score!)
 
Hands down broken monster that has absolutely everything a cruiser should have and more. One of those accidentally OP ships where power creep played in its favour (it wasn't actually seen as that hot when it was first released). Where to begin with this 1954 model Russian Bias? It has a standard DD smoke, which allows you to lay big corridors for your team and then wander around in it spamming your IFHE shredder barrage. 152mm is, of course, the optimum IFHE calibre and you can inflict both huge alpha and huge DOT damage with your HE. That isn't to say the AP is bad either. Flat but not railgun arcs give good penetration characteristics and terminal ballistics, meaning you can DPM out just about anything that isn't a lower tier German or Japanese Battleship (not enough freeboard). The fact that you can use smoke to either aggressively approach to do this, or to kite away and HE spam is icing.
It has enormous range too and an adequate concealment rating, meaning that you can play it like a traditional cruiser when you run out of smoke. The armour is terrible, but the ship is manoeuvrable and skinny enough that you can evade most fire sent your direction. Oh and the AA is best-in-tier godly so anyone stupid enough to try to fly planes near you will lose all of them. It also has a good torp armament, which allows you to get off ambushes or last-stand a charging battleship quite effectively. Or you can send them out the back of your smoke as you're leaving as a nasty surprise for anyone closing, since they have 8km range. It's used a lot in competitive for good reason. If you are going to buy one prem, it's this one.
Chapayev - Solo: Underperforms, Division: Competitive, Organised: Exceptional
 
The Kutuzov's specialist sibling, the Chapayev has less utility in randoms but is critical to any competitive lineup. It has excellent guns and concealment, allowing you to sneak up on unwary targets or spam IFHE from range. What really distinguishes the Chapayev is the unbeatable support combination of good AA and the 12km radar. Paired with the concealment this allows you to support a push like no other. Or as RNGSama from our KOTS team put it: You're playing a very important button. The Radar is critical to most strats and is very useful in division for flushing ships from smoke. You don't have the solo carry power of the Kutuzov in randoms however, and your awful turning circle and armour will get you killed a lot. It's not much fun when you don't have competent players taking advantage of your Y key. However, it's not terrible given it has solid guns and a slim profile. The torps are defensive only (4km range), but they are there and worth remembering for the times when you need them.
Kiev - Solo: Strong, Division: Competitive, Organised: Underperforms
 
Started off as a disgustingly OP T7, then was nerfed down to something more reasonable. Now reborn as a T8, this is a nasty little gunboat with good range, fast firing guns and a frankly inane 11% fire chance when specced for it. Oh and it's bloody fast. So fast that people will genuinely struggle to hit you (even if the turning circle is like an oil tanker as a result). The main flaw with the Kiev is a lack of versatility. It's a superb damage dealer and it can punch a torp wall through a smoke (now with 8k Lenin-approved torpedoes), but the lack of good concealment and DPM disadvantages against American destroyers make it a dicey prospect to contest caps, plus it only has RU smoke so you can't lay long-lasting cover for your team. If you're in a good division or have a friend in an American or Japanese destroyer who can spot for you it shits damage like crazy and draws fire away from squishier friendlies.
Ognevoi
 
Got it but the captain isn't up to spec so I can't give a definitive answer on this one.
Japan
 
Kagero - Organised: Garbage
 
Not really my style of ship (SAIL AROUND AND KEK TORPS LUL) so I'm probably not going to play it. Reddit says its shit so it's probably alright.
Akizuki - Organised: Competitive
 
Weeb fangirl favourite. It's on the list and I've seen the blistering AP dpm in competitive.
Atago - Solo: Exceptional, Division: Competitive, Organised: Competitive
 
Once this was the king of T8, now it has been demoted to a mere Duke. The Atago is still a strong ship, but the addition of actually good T8 cruisers that are as powerful as it is has reduced its standing quite a lot. It still has a heal and so has unparalleled survivability amongst T8 cruisers. It has good torp arcs, brutal torpedoes that have 10km range and solid main armament. It's fast and stealthy. However, it is also a very selfish ship. It does damage and nothing else. You don't have any fancy toys to help out your team (apart from your defensive AA consumable but your AA is so bad that it doesn't do anything apart from panic drops). Thats fine in randoms, you can do a lot of work in the ship with the good concealment, speed and high fire-chance HE. However, it's fallen out of favour in competitive because of the lack of powerful support abilities.
Amagi - Solo: Strong, Division: Strong, Competitive: Exceptional
 
Everyone's favourite T8 fast-battleship. The Amagi is your flanking, tanking battleship of choice for mobile groups. The somewhat unique ABXYZ turret layout allows you to kite in ways that the vast majority of battleships can't. If you've fought an Amagi you'll know that when one sails away from you at just the angle to get all of its guns on target it's virtually indestructible. Because of the excellent armour layout and turtleback (yes it has one, go look in the armour viewer) it is exceptionally tanky, and the speed allows you to dictate the terms of the engagement. It has accurate, powerful guns that "feel" right. It's hard to explain. The North Carolina has guns that are exceptionally rewarding if you learn to use them. The Amagi just performs.
It's like the difference between a supercar and my MX5/Miata. The Supercar is going to perform better when you master it, but the Miata just works no matter how skilled you are. I love the Amagi main battery, even though I prefer the NC now that I've improved at the game. The ship is easy to play, versatile and difficult to kill. Oh and you have 40% torp damage reduction on the belt so air attacks are less dangerous and you can afford to eat the odd torp. The AA isn't great and you're very long so even though you have good torp resists you will eventually die to carriers. It's frequently used in the competitive scene because of the consistency of the guns, the mobility and the tankiness.
Mogami - Solo: Underperforms, Division: Garbage, Organised: Garbage
 
Note, I played this before IFHE so it will have some more damage potential now. The Mogami has potential but is VERY hard to play effectively. Mogami has a problem, and it's the gun choice. You can either have a mediocre 8" gun with reasonable handling, or an excellent 6" gun with terrible gun handling. The turrets turn so slow I was actually happy to give up some of my DPM to buff it with the turret traverse mod. It also has a strange quirk that means you pretty much have to play it stock: The stock hull has lower detection range and can stealth fire. This means that if you're lucky and skillful you can hover on the edge of your range and shit on people with the 15 6" guns. The firepower is crazy good for that sort of play. At the end of the day though it's too finnicky, hasn't got good AA and is very squishy. I played through it but it's probably the weakest cruiser in tier (maybe, see below) and lends virtually nothing to a two or three man division.
Germany
 
Z-23 - Organised: Garbage
 
I've shat on these things so often I never want to actually play one. Sorry, don't have anything more to say on this topic.
Admiral Hipster/Prinz Eugen - Solo: Underperforms, Division: Underperforms, Organised: Garbage
 
These ships should be good. They have a seemingly high DPM, fast shells and good torpedoes. It also has a turtleback, making it hard to citadel from close range. However, at the end of the day they just end up being very mediocre. The AP is alright but the moment you see angles it starts bouncing and the HE is a little too anaemic to take up the slack. They're a bit slow and the Hipper is garbage stock. I can't really think of much to say. It's like that old Top Gear review of the Vauxhall Astra: "Eughhh". I guess they're okay when you stay at range? It survives being worst in tier because the AA is serviceable and can help your division mates. Or you can stack hydro for whatever reason.
Tirpitz - Solo: Strong, Division: Competitive, Organised: Underperforms
 
The Lowe of WoWS, the Derpitz is often seen being driven by Wehraboos with 15 battles under their belt charging an enemy DD to "use torps". This is a ship with a crap main battery on a good platform. The ship is fast and fairly nimble, with fast turning turrets. Having a turtleback it suits brawling, particularly when you see the dismal spread that the guns have. They also have totally awful ballistics. They're too fast at close range, ending up with lots of overpens and lacking the plunge angle to easily dive below the water and still reach the ship. At long range the scattershot spread means you frequently miss. However, the Tirpitz has a trick up its sleeve: four torpedoes on each side. This means you can run into trouble and use your 25s reload and torps to shoot your way out. Just be warned that if you show broadside you will get wrecked even with turtleback. The turtleback is there to save you in a brawl when you cannot avoid showing your side. Showing your sides the whole time will result in you taking 20k hits from Amagis and NCs. Even worse is if you turn into a target and flash your petticoats at the enemy because they can citadel you in that moment. This used to be used quite a bit in competitive but its role has mostly been subsumed by Bismarck.
Bismarck - Solo: Strong, Division: Strong, Organised: Competitive
 
Speaking of which, Bismarck. This is a Tirpitz without the torps but with some additional toys. You can set the ship up to fire 10km with the secondaries and set many, many fires (since they all fire HE). You also have hydro to detect torpedoes and flush people out of their smokes. I'm going to be honest here, I hate this ship. It's distressingly pleb-proof. You don't even need to shoot well, just charge at people, ctrl-click their ship and then go for tea or something. The hydro makes them almost immune to torps and the turtleback makes it hard to punish mistakes quickly. Meanwhile the guns are so inconsistent that skillful shot timing and placement frequently gets destroyed by RNG. At the end of the day it's powerful, but very boring and not a particularly skilful playstyle.
 
UK
 
Edinburgh - Organised: Underperforms to Competitive depending on map
 
It's on the list, but doesn't frequently feature in competitive so it isn't a focus right now.
Pan Asia
 
Lo Yang - Solo: Competitive, Division: Competitive, Organised: Underperforms
 
Lo Yang is a competent DD which has been somewhat overshadowed by its base class (the Benson) and by its special ability no longer being so special. You're basically a C hull Benson with Mahan torpedoes (bad damage and all) and hydroacoustic search. Hydro is pretty great but with the advent of significantly larger numbers of Radar and hydro cruisers you're no longer quite as unique in the tier. You're still a Benson clone mind, so you have high DPM guns (but very slow arcs) which turn very quickly. This means that you can usually win a DPM fight with all but a B hull benson, and your torpedoes while weak can still deal a reasonable amount of damage. Sadly because you don't bring the DPM or a particularly useful and unique ability the Lo Yang has been demoted from top-tier competitive to a substitute ship for emergencies or for weird niche strats. In randoms you do bring a useful advantage over the Benson which is that your hydro can spot torps in the smoke, so it does still have a nice niche for itself, just not in organised play.

fuck rank 2 was a bitch to get through

fuck rank 2 was a bitch to get through

fuck rank 2 was a bitch to get through

fuck rank 2 was a bitch to get through

penetration values of stale baguette
 

penetration values of stale baguette
 

Autoloaders are already in the game. USS Des Moins is a prime example.

add me
 
 
 
 

had a 66k spotting game in Shira, thats alot when there are only 7 ships

Akizuki Akizuki Akizuki

its the Akatsuki
oh an WG fucked over the super league, only the top 2 players by exp get a container now... GG, best ranked season ever, shit rewards and shit super league 

at this point WG has stopped caring and is going full P2W.... they arent even subtle about it

had a 66k spotting game in Shira, thats alot when there are only 7 ships

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
THEY BUFFED IT EVEN MORE:
 
LMAAAOOOO I KNOW THIS IS RETARDED BUT I CANT STOP LAUGHING, WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK WG